So Ed was the useless one in the past. Very cute ed x ian, could use some more!
And is this progress for Honoka x eli that i see?
Always so happy for Kanae, living her best life with no regrets now.

h-how lewd, premarital hand holding is prohibited >.<

Couldn't tell if Nao's wearing undies or going commando.

Chapter 250. So beautiful.

Wait how am I supposed to feel about those "I love you"s between Honoka and Eli????

Also wow, chapter 251 is amazing. I can feel how in love Haruka and Kanade are, even though we only see their backs and the focus is on Nao and Hibiki.

Couldn't tell if Nao's wearing undies or going commando.

It's Nao we're talking about. Of COURSE she goes commando XD

That HonoEli chapter was so cute!!! Also I was not expecting younger Ian to have such a different fashion sense lol

Wow... taking hand holding to the limit here.

HonoxEli chads, we made it

That’s so cute, I love the way honoka neither (just) feels reassured nor overthinks it and just calmly says it back. Very cute- adorable even

Haruka is ridiculously pretty.

Also please someone be Mayu's gf, she is very cute.

But not as cute as Ed and Ian lol, what an adorkable flashback.

last edited at Jul 10, 2022 2:38PM

Everything about this was perfect but Honoka's reaction about answering while Eli was in sleep was perfecter.

Also I wish Kanae from the initial chapters could see her chad self now.

She really has! She’s come so far and grown so much, and has the girlfriend of her dreams.

Words cannot describe the happiness I currently feel.

So, like...

Honoka and Eli have exchanged love confessions??? And the excuse of sleeptalking doesn't work because Eli admitted she was awake??? So now they have officially put a name on their mutual feelings and they are by their own recognition a couple in love???

WOW!!! ♡♡♡

Also, on another subject:

I had never thought it important before, but...

These three have always been in a line in the main cast page! Kishi only does it for characters who are supposed to have something going on at some point in the story...

Kanae transformed from incel to alpha chad before our very eyes

Kanae transformed from incel to alpha chad before our very eyes

Don't you mean femcel?

Also, I thought there was gonna be something between Nao and Onibi after the chapter where they met, given they were even draw together in the Halloween thingy, but I guess that was a misdirect.

last edited at Jul 10, 2022 11:18PM

juanelric posted:

Kanae transformed from incel to alpha chad before our very eyes

Don't you mean femcel?

Also, I thought there was gonna be something between Nao and Onibi after the chapter where they met, given they were even draw together in the Halloween thingy, but I guess that was a misdirect.

They're in the volume cover too (Nao and Onibi), for vol 12 and all the other important pairs have their own cover so I wouldn't write it off so soon.

But yeah Honoka and Eli and Haruka and Kanade, man that's the gooooooooooooooooood stuff!!! like, they're just in their own world, and seeing Honoka and Haruka responding in turn it's so cute!!!

@Serenata yeah, it's really nice finally seeing those two couples together. Especially since, initially, neither Kanae nor Honoka were implied to have a possible partner.

Kanae x Haruka are my favorite pairing ... glad to see them again! If only Ayano x Miyoshi were so honest ...

Honoka and Eli have exchanged love confessions??? And the excuse of sleeptalking doesn't work because Eli admitted she was awake??? So now they have officially put a name on their mutual feelings and they are by their own recognition a couple in love???

WOW!!! ♡♡♡

I wouldn't be so sure about this. You might be right, but ...

My read on Honoka has always been that she is obviously straight. She not only writes but daydreams yaoi manga. Go back to the XMas episode where Honoka is invited over Eli's place and gets to meet Ed & Ian. She gets to witness Eli at her most bootylicious in that outfit (that outfit!!) and she reacts with complete disinterest. Then when Ian says he was going to wear something like that for Ed, she starts drooling while fantasizing about it.

Now, this is just a comic where magical things can happen. But it's not a stretch to imagine that even in a yuri manga, the author might be slightly concerned about the silliness of imagining that everyone within this extended network of friends just happens to be gay. That he might throw in some platonic female affection from time to time - which can still be "ecchi" even if only suggestive.

In real life, women are different than men. They don't shy away from intimate affection in the way men do - they can say "I love you" without having to suffix it with something like ", man ..." in order to make it clear that it's platonic. Granted, there is some scientific evidence that female sexuality is a bit more fluid (the old "college lesbian" trope) than for males, so a sexual thing here could still be somewhat plausible.

Nonetheless, I'm far more convinced of the relationship between Kanae and Haruka, despite them never having uttered the phrase "I love you", than I am for Honoka and Eli. Actions speak louder than words.

EDIT: OK I'm forgetting Haruka's note to Kanae ... still, Kanae never explicitly said it back, and yet the feeling is obviously mutual.

last edited at Jul 11, 2022 3:26PM

She not only writes but daydreams yaoi manga.

You answer your own doubts tho. She like Yaoi and is a bit disinterested of anything outside of it. Doesn't mean she is straight.

She not only writes but daydreams yaoi manga.

You answer your own doubts tho. She like Yaoi and is a bit disinterested of anything outside of it. Doesn't mean she is straight.

I've acknowledged that, but I don't see how this answers anything. She was more than "a bit" disinterested. I remember because I was disappointed:

In real life, that's virtually 100% a straight girl. I'm a straight guy, and if I'm in Honoka's position, I'm trying really hard not to stare (and filing that image away for ... later). Honoka's reacting the way I would have if I saw Ian like this (the thought of which had Honoka drooling). Sexual attraction is a primal thing; you don't react like Honoka does here if you're secretly bisexual.

But of course, this is a manga. The author can make whatever he wants happen. Yet, notice the complete lack of blushing, flustering, sweating, heart-thumping, or any of the other indicators Torajirou typically uses to indicate repressed sexual arousal. This is what convinced me he wanted this to be more of a "suggestively ecchi close friends" pairing than a "seriously potentially romantic pairing".

So we'll see. But I wouldn't be shocked to see Honoka claim in a later episode that she didn't mean it that way (which of course, will draw skepticism that she's simply in denial, in order to keep the "ship" afloat ...).

I think is just shows how much their relationship has changed, after all, before she wouldn't even let Eli get close or touch her and only accepted to come over to see "live action BL" her head was filled 99% with BL and her general vibe seemed miserable when it wasn't related to yaoi.

Nowadays not only they share the same personal space but now Honoka doesn't need the Live action BL excuse to come over, in fact it can be just the two of them, a great example

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/virgins_empire_ch216#1
https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/virgins_empire_ch224#1

If you think she's not interested and straight after seeing those chapters, well... you might be suffering from denial.

It started with Honoka coming over because Eli lived with two gay guys. (I remember her saying yes after Eli told her about this in an early chapter.) I think Eli liked Honoka -love at first sight "she's so cool"- and then Honoka fell in love along the way.

last edited at Jul 11, 2022 11:56PM

Nowadays not only they share the same personal space but now Honoka doesn't need the Live action BL excuse to come over, in fact it can be just the two of them, a great example

Of course she doesn't need an excuse - they're extremely close friends now! Eli has pulled Honoka out of her shell and finally given her someone to relate to instead of brooding alone in her room all day. That's a serious thing! They absolutely love each other in a completely deep and intimate way - no question. And Eli is almost certainly bisexual. But I just don't see it with Honoka.

I think we're letting our perviness get the best of us when we project romantic, sexual feelings onto something quite possibly deeper and more substantial.

If you think she's not interested and straight after seeing those chapters, well... you might be suffering from denial.

Oh, not a chance ... after all, denial is for things you don't want to happen, and I very much would love to see it. But the best way to believe something is true is to look for reasons to doubt it, and I see plenty in this case.

In fact, I think you're missing some of the subtleties in Honoka's reactions. Yes, there's the blushing - indicating embarrassment, but that happens when Eli is all over Honoka or getting in her face. But there's no heart-racing like with Haruka, no individual moments of longing like when Ayano looks at Miyoshi ... Notice even at the end of the second chapter that you linked, her reaction is "You were supposed to laugh!!" when Eli responds with enthuiastic arousal. She was trying to play along - indicating that her sweating and stammering prior to that was genuine discomfort.

I would be interested to know if any of the people disagreeing with me are gay/bisexual women. Not to discredit anyone ad hominem, but I'm curious whether an L/B would think this idea of lesbian sexual desire going from zero-to-girlfriend like this is realistic. Or maybe some straight women on whether or not Honoka's behavior would be consistent with how they might react to having a close friend who they suspect wouldn't mind an experimental dalliance with them (I'm guessing there aren't many straight women here). I have a feeling we're a mostly a bunch of straight dudes who think we comprehend women better than we do, but maybe I'm wrong.